Messier highlights Leadership Experience

Mark Messier Legends Experience

Hockey great Mark Messier makes his entrance with an EPS escort and an Octane girl honour guard during the Legends Experience, an annual Kinsmen gala fundraiser, at the Edmonton Expo Centre in Edmonton, Alberta on Friday, September 21, 2012. Mark Messier was on hand as the feature for the event. AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI A

Raj Mankoo is reflected in a framed jersey as he peruses the items up for silent auction during the Legends Experience, an annual Kinsmen gala fundraiser, at the Edmonton Expo Centre in Edmonton, Alberta on Friday, September 21, 2012. Mark Messier was on hand as the feature for the event. AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI A

Mark Messier, right, during the Legends Experience, an annual Kinsmen gala fundraiser, at the Edmonton Expo Centre in Edmonton, Alberta on Friday, September 21, 2012. Mark Messier was on hand as the feature for the event. AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI A

A woman looks over items up for silent auction during the Legends Experience, an annual Kinsmen gala fundraiser, at the Edmonton Expo Centre in Edmonton, Alberta on Friday, September 21, 2012. Mark Messier was on hand as the feature for the event. AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI A

Hockey great Mark Messier makes his entrance with an EPS escort and an Octane girl honour guard during the Legends Experience, an annual Kinsmen gala fundraiser, at the Edmonton Expo Centre in Edmonton, Alberta on Friday, September 21, 2012. Mark Messier was on hand as the feature for the event. AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI A

Mark Messier, right, chats withTerry O'Flynn after O'Flynn's table won the auction to have Messier sit with them during the Legends Experience, an annual Kinsmen gala fundraiser, at the Edmonton Expo Centre in Edmonton, Alberta on Friday, September 21, 2012. Mark Messier was on hand as the feature for the event. AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI A

Nigel Mullan photographs trophy's on display during the Legends Experience, an annual Kinsmen gala fundraiser, at the Edmonton Expo Centre in Edmonton, Alberta on Friday, September 21, 2012. Mark Messier was on hand as the feature for the event. AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI A

Mark Messier during the Legends Experience, an annual Kinsmen gala fundraiser, at the Edmonton Expo Centre in Edmonton, Alberta on Friday, September 21, 2012. Mark Messier was on hand as the feature for the event. AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI A

Hockey great Mark Messier is greeted by a fan as he makes his entrance to the Legends Experience, an annual Kinsmen gala fundraiser, at the Edmonton Expo Centre in Edmonton, Alberta on Friday, September 21, 2012. Mark Messier was on hand as the feature for the event. AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI A

Hockey great Mark Messier makes his entrance with an EPS escort and an Octane girl honour guard during the Legends Experience, an annual Kinsmen gala fundraiser, at the Edmonton Expo Centre in Edmonton, Alberta on Friday, September 21, 2012. Mark Messier was on hand as the feature for the event. AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI A

Gala attendees look over the items up for silent auction during the Legends Experience, an annual Kinsmen gala fundraiser, at the Edmonton Expo Centre in Edmonton, Alberta on Friday, September 21, 2012. Mark Messier was on hand as the feature for the event. AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI A

The Edmonton Octane perform during the Legends Experience, an annual Kinsmen gala fundraiser, at the Edmonton Expo Centre in Edmonton, Alberta on Friday, September 21, 2012. Mark Messier was on hand as the feature for the event. AMBER BRACKEN/EDMONTON SUN/QMI AGENCY

So, you’re holding a Kinsmen Legends Experience featuring Mark Messier and who do you bring in as the featured guest to highlight the night?

Last year with Wayne Gretzky, they brought up rookie Oilers Taylor Hall and Jordan Eberle to ask questions of The Great One to conclude the show.

This year with Messier, they brought up Jim Peplinski.

A Calgary Flame.

“The most amazing thing to me that in all those years of Calgary versus Edmonton nobody was seriously injured. For 10 years there were very few players I didn’t try to kill on the Oilers,” said Peplinski.

“One thing I will say is that if the Oilers weren’t so damn good, the Flames would have continued to do what the Flames had being doing in Atlanta and that was losing playoff games.

“I don’t think there was a rivalry to compare to the Edmonton-Calgary rivalry from fan participation to apprehension in the dressing room.

Messier said it took until about the time of the Heritage Classic that Oilers and Flames of that era started to get to know each other and appreciate what they meant to each other.

“What would Frazier have been without Ali?” said Messier.

“The Oilers needed the Calgary Flames to become the team we did. Without the Flames challenging us I don’t think we’d become the individuals and the team we became.

“The greatest compliment I could give to Jim and many of his teammates is they would have been great Oilers.”

While the format of the dinner remained flawed by Kinsmen testimonials and auctions which once again didn’t allow the program to begin until 9 p.m., two hours after Messier was paraded into the Edmonton Expo Centre and four hours after the doors opened for the reception stage, once again it was an excellent experience.

Once again it was excellent because of the legends themselves. That and bringing back an era.

“The NHL was my dream and to do it in my hometown was amazing,” Messier told the crowd.

“It was definitely the right time. We knew if we hitched our wagon to Wayne Gretzky and found a way to help him out, there was a pretty good chance we were going to win a Stanley Cup. And here we are all these years later to celebrate some of the most amazing hockey ever played.

“I don’t think any of us expected the magic that was going to unfold. We became a brotherhood off the ice and when we hit the ice I think we became one of the most unbelievable of any other team in sports — and I know what a big statement that is to make because there are a lot of other great teams in sport.

“It was such an intimate group and not only with ourselves but with the city. That’s what made it so special. When we won the Cup we felt like we won it not just for ourselves but for the people in the city.

“It was a perfect storm in a lot of ways. Glen Sather was the best one to coach us. He knew how to reel us in. We had incredible leadership in our room.”

There was a lot of retelling of old stories, loved by all.

But there was one rather remarkable revelation.

The player who many call the greatest leader in the history of hockey and maybe any other sport, confessed that his misguided leadership did more to hurt the team than help the year after Peter Pocklington sold Gretzky to Los Angeles.

“We ended up playing Wayne in a playoff series and we were up three games to one. I look back now and my ego got to me. I had to beat Wayne. I was playing 35 minutes a game, driving the Zamboni and selling popcorn. When we lost the series I realized nobody else was engaged. That was one of the things I had to learn as a leader.”

He learned it and the Oilers won a fifth Cup the next year in 1990 and eventually Messier went to New York and captained the Rangers to their first Stanley Cup in 42 yeas complete with the guaranteed win in Game 6 against the New Jersey Devils.